March 18th in Elvis History

It's March 18th, and on this day in 1965, production began on Elvis’s nineteenth film, *Harum Scarum*, at MGM studios in California. Known for quickly churning out movies, producer Sam Katzman completed filming in just eighteen days. Elvis, however, was often heard complaining about the film's concept. At one point, Colonel Parker even insisted on adding "speaking parts" to the script, only for Katzman to dismiss the idea. Despite the film's exotic theme, it was shot entirely on soundstages and back lots at MGM. One of the sets, an ornate temple, had originally been built for Cecil B. DeMille’s silent epic *King of Kings* from forty years earlier, and costumes were recycled from the 1944 film *Kismet*. Elvis earned a whopping one million dollars plus fifty percent of the profits for the movie, leaving just \$300,000 to pay the rest of the cast.